Alright guys. Sorry but I'm really not up to reading through this thread tonight. Maybe I will tomorrow morning if nothing interesting is happening at work. Anyways, maybe some of you could help me get a DAC/Amp.
First off, I don't want to dive into some $1000+ system or anything like that. I'm not here to argue audiophile level stuff and whether or not it is worth it or not. I am just looking for a bang for the buck. I'm pretty sure anything is better than the random sound card I have sitting in my machine right now.
I listen to a bit of music but a lot of it falls under the EDM genre. Most if it is streamed from pandora,youtube,etc. I do have a few downloaded files but they are just random mp3's and not fancy high quality flac or anything.
Sooo.... You may be wondering why I want to invest in a new system at all. My old headphones broke and I got the Razer Carcharias, but apparently they changed it to a v2 that supports the xbox. Holy **** was that a mistake, as soon as I plugged it in I got a horrible buzzing sound that would stay as long as it was plugged in, apparently its a common issue with its amp. Anyways, I couldn't stand it and instantly gave them back. Right now I am sitting on a pair of Sony MDR-V600 which are just headphones and no mic or anything. I can tell they are higher quality than the Razer trash, but not sure how they stack up to everything else. Anyways, I'm happy enough with the headphones - they are comfortable and seem to sound ok.
My issue is that when I crank up my system volume past ~75% I start to get this white noise sound that is slightly annoying. It's not a big deal because I can lower the volume until the white noise is no longer perceivable, but it's still there and sometimes I have to raise it. I will assume that getting an external DAC (and amp?) would help alleviate this interference. Like I said I don't want anything too fancy, just something that will hopefully take care of that issue. I also miss having a physical wheel for my volume which will be nice. If you guys really think I need a new pair of cans too I guess I would be open to it. Hopefully some of you more knowledgeable people can give some advice.
tl;dr - white noise at high volume with built in audio. Looking for decent DAC to help alleviate the issue.
Edit: Not sure how picky I will be with the sound type but I think I want to play it safe and stay with a fairly flat profile - so a solid state, and stay away from tube's for now. Who knows, maybe I will look at them later. They are pretty
I'm not opposed to DIY stuff and some soldering (No SMD experience though). The O2 stuff seems interesting but to be honest their website reminds me of Beats and seems like they are trying to sell it off of brand name (NWAVGUY). However, I'v heard they take a pretty objective approach so maybe I am wrong about that.
It seems like the general consensus is that the basic schiit stack (magni/modi) is the goto setup. The dac and amp are separate which should make it easier to upgrade in the future if I want to. I'v heard someone say that SPDIF might be better than USB. If I get the Modi should I get it in USB or Optical style? My motherboard does have an optical port. If it matters I am running Linux primary but it seems like most of the chips are supported including the ones on schiit's page.
Thanks for the help and sorry for the long post...